Alumnus donates Florida island to business school

What would you do if someone gave you the deed to an island off the coast of Florida?\nKelley School of Business students now have the opportunity to play real-estate brokers, with the help of a $1.95 million gift of beachfront property from former IU student Stanley Benecki.\nBenecki, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in real estate, donated the property to provide students with an opportunity to maximize the property’s value. \n“Mr. Benecki’s donation was a unique way to give back to his school and a creative way to teach students about real estate,” said Rex Davenport, the business school’s associate director of publications.\n“It gives them an opportunity to play developer by getting out there and figuring out ways to market and increase the lots’ value,” Benecki said in an IU news release. “When I was in school, we didn’t have hands-on opportunities to play with real estate – especially at these dollar amounts – and I think it will be exciting for students. It’s a real project. They’ll get to learn how to put things together, and that’s where real value is.”\nJeffrey Fisher, director of the Benecki Center for Real Estate Studies, said he is pleased with the thoughtfulness and kindness of his former student. Fisher, whose career began in the 1979-1980 school year, was a professor of Benecki’s and will lead the project. Benecki will serve as an adviser.\n“I am very pleased that Stan (Benecki) was willing to donate the property to support the real-estate program at Indiana University,” Fisher said. “It is nice to know that Stan felt that his education at Indiana University helped spawn his successful career.”\nThe island, inhabited by fewer than 100 Florida residents, is mostly owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy, an organization that collaborates with governments and other organizations to protect and preserve nature. The surrounding coves and bays harbor shipwrecks from colonial expansion. The island, which is accessible only by boat or plane, was formerly a haven for smugglers and pirates.\nBoth undergraduate and graduate students in the real-estate club will be able to participate, opening the project to students outside the Kelley school. Fisher also plans to travel to the island to assess its value personally, accompanied by a select number of students, he said.\n“(Students) will learn how to determine the optimal use for a site that is quite unusual and how to figure out who the potential buyers or developers would be and how to market to them,” Fisher said.\nAll proceeds from selling the island property will be given to the Kelley school, as a creative donation from Benecki.